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WHO PAYS THE HIGHEST AND LOWEST PER-MILE TRANSIT FARES?

Transit fares paid per mile by different transit users are considered as the basis for uncovering inequities under present flat fare transit structures. Using data collected from a 1975 survey in Albany, N.Y. the ridership profile is studied to determine what inequities exist, and how they are related to rider characteristics. Automatic Interaction Detection (AID) and tabular summaries were used to determine the power of various independent variables to explain the variation of cost-per-mile. Variations in cost-per-mile for each individual variable are also studied. The key finding supports conventional wisdom: the short-trip, non-peak hour, non-work, inner city, urban rider who is generally less well off in society and is dependent on the bus as the only means of affordable transportation, is paying much more per mile for his bus trip than the longer trip, work trip, suburban rider. Thus, people requiring bus service most and least able to pay are being charged at the highest rate under current flat fare structures. /Author/